The horrific fire in the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria,Brazil, stands out for its high death toll ” 233 at the latest count. Shockedsurvivors, mostly young adults in the southern college town of Santa Maria,described a frantic rush to the exits as flames swept through the club, withscores of people getting trampled and passing out from smoke inhalation.
Sadly, though, such deadly ” and entirely avoidable ” blazesare hardly unknown in Latin America. In the last decade or so, Buenos Aires,Caracas, Lima and Mexico City have all seen double-digit fatalities as packeddiscos have filled with smoke and flames in a matter of moments.
The full facts surrounding the Santa Maria inferno have yetto be established. Police arrested four people in their ongoing investigation.But routine flouting of health and safety laws is a common thread in theregion’s previous tragedies, and one that’s highly suspected to be part of thecause of the latest fire.
In October 2000, 22 revelers died in the Lobohombo nightclubin the Mexican capital after a short-circuit in lighting equipment. In thechaos, bouncers at the door initially refused to let customers flee withoutpaying for their drinks first. It subsequently emerged that Lobohombo only hada permit to open as a restaurant rather than a club, had three times its legalcapacity of 1,000 customers inside at the time of the accident, and hadpreviously been closed down numerous times for code violations.
Owner Alejandro Iglesias Rebollo, known as Mexico City’s“King of Underground Bars,” was never brought to justice over the tragedy. Atthe time of the tragedy, some 15,000 establishments across Mexico were failingto comply with health and safety and other laws, according to the country’sNational Association of Discos and Bars.
In July 2002, the disco Utopia, in Peru’s capital city ofLima, erupted in flames, killing 29 partiers, after a display with lights andfire by the bartender went drastically wrong. Investigators discovered a longlist of irregularities at Utopia. For starters, there wasn’t a single fireextinguisher in the venue. The bartender, Roberto Ferreyros, and nightclubmanager Percy North have both served time behind bars on manslaughter and othercharges.
Less than six months later, in December 2002, 47 people diedin a fire in the La Guajira nightclub in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.Investigators said it lacked clearly signed and wide enough emergency exits.
Yet the most similar incident to the Kiss tragedy ” both inoutsized death toll and apparent cause ” was the blaze during a rock concert atthe Cromanon club in Buenos Aires in December 2004.
In total, 194 people were killed when the Cromanon caughtfire after a member of the band, Callejeros, lit a firework from the stage ” acommon event at underground rock shows in the region. All seven members of theband, who had been in charge of security at their own show, were found guiltyof causing the deaths.
Investigators discovered that Cromanon had been operatinglegally despite ” yet again ” not having fire extinguishers. The scandal led toBuenos Aires Mayor Anibal Ibarra losing his job for overseeing health andsafety policy failures in the Argentine capital.
Worryingly though, official corruption and incompetenceallowing nightclub owners to flout laws and ignore basic safety proceduresremain common in many countries in the region.
And beyond the bereaved relatives, few groups activelycampaign on the issue of fire prevention in Latin America ” making moretragedies likely.
